A Division III kicker managed to turned a blocked field goal into 3 points during a game Saturday.
Watch as the Texas Lutheran kicker has his kicked blocked, but still has the awareness to kick it through the uprights off the bounce:
@espn Have you ever seen this? Texas Lutheran's Tyler Hopkins has FG blocked only to kick again off bounce for 18-yard FG! #sctop10 #D3fb pic.twitter.com/VYVT264j5a
— TLU Bulldogs (@tluathletics) September 17, 2017
By rule, the field goal counts:
But according to Football Zebras, those rules are superseded by the rule preventing the kick of a loose ball. So the field goal should never have been allowed. Whoops. We read the rules wrong. And the officials apparently did too.
“A ball that is not in a player’s possession is a loose ball: in-flight forward passes, fumbles, kicks, and backward passes are all loose balls. So, the blocked field goal remains a kick, but it is also a loose ball. And under no circumstance may a player deliberately kick a loose ball. (A ball being dropped for a legal punt or dropkick is not considered loose if it is kicked as usual.) So, at this point there is a foul for an illegal kick. This being Division III, we are under NCAA rules, and the illegal kick is a 15-yard penalty and a loss of down. Assuming this is a fourth down, this would be a turnover on downs.”
